Connecticut begins to close wide racial gaps in prison population

Sentencing Project

Connecticut has begun to reduce the disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos in its prisons. Since 2008, the numbers of black and Hispanic inmates have fallen by 15 percent each, while the number of white prisoners dropped by a slower 6 percent. The drop is relatively small, but because of policy changes, shifting attitudes and a heightened awareness of racial profiling, state officials expect that the racial and ethnic disparities will continue to shrink. This is significant in a state that has long had wide disparity gap. Connecticut had the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest disparity between Hispanics and whites in the prison population in a 2007 study by The Sentencing Project. The main reason for the shift is policy change and reform aimed at reducing the spiraling prison population, which peaked at 20,000 in Connecticut in 2008.